WINDOWS 95 MANIA : Opening Day : Microsoft’s Windows 95 Off to a Bright, if Not Blinding, Start
Zero hour arrived Thursday for software giant Microsoft Corp. and countless computer stores around Southern California and the world, with nocturnal parties, big crowds and special promotions ushering in the Windows 95 personal computer program.
But even though fun seemed to be had by all at the retailers’ midnight sales festivals--and at the VIP gala on the Microsoft campus outside Seattle--some signs were emerging that Windows 95 might not live up to the prodigious hype.
As the clock struck midnight Wednesday, copies of Windows 95 began flying off the shelves at scores of Southern California computer stores.
Carrying slices of complimentary pizza, eager customers milled through the CompUSA showroom in Woodland Hills, waiting for 12:01 a.m., when the warehouse room holding 4,000 copies of the heralded computer operating system would open.
“It’s something different to do,” explained Sean Bernhoit, 25, of Tarzana, as he picked through CD-ROM video games, waiting for midnight. “It’s like going to see a movie when it first comes out. Same principle.”
Over the store PA system, an employee reminded shoppers that there were only 15 minutes until midnight. Now 10. Now five.
“We have 4,000 copies in here,” called out one employee. “There will be no need to push.”
At 12:01 am., after the New Year’s-style countdown, store personnel cut the blue tape girding the entrance to the warehouse. The shoppers poured in.
Chris Elan snatched a Windows box and plopped it into his shopping basket. “They’ve kept us waiting long enough,” he said.
Why did he wait so long? “I don’t know. I must be nuts,” he said.
At Egghead Software in Chatsworth, Mitchell Marcus gushed: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is the premiere. The opening. You’ve got to be here.”
At CompUSA in Fountain Valley, a crowd of 300 was on hand for the event, with searchlights in the parking lot creating the feel of a Hollywood premiere--but with fuel-efficient Japanese cars rather than limousines lined up at the curb.
At the Egghead outlet in Pasadena, sales associates had synchronized their watches so they could begin ringing up customers precisely at the stroke of midnight. They knew the moment had arrived when store manager Don Tordilla played a dramatic piece of classical music to hail the beginning of a new era in computing.
Robert Todd was the first in line. For the privilege he arrived at 11:30 p.m., about an hour after a crowd started forming at the store. The advantage of being first in line, he said, is that he could go straight home and be done installing Windows 95 by 3 a.m.
“This is the Woodstock of the ‘90s,” said Todd, a 47-year-old general contractor from South Pasadena, without a hint of irony.
Mazier Maniei and his wife hosted a dinner party to celebrate the Windows release. Afterward, he and his guests headed over to Egghead at midnight.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for 2 1/2 years,” said Maniei, 35, a computer consultant in Pasadena. “This is the best thing since they came out with the floppy disk drive in 1977.”
By the time he got to the front of the checkout line, friends had loaded him up with $600 worth of software--more than twice the amount he had planned to spend. “By the time I’m finished paying for all of this it will be time for Windows 99,” he joked.
But if there was plenty of excitement at midnight, that was not the case everywhere during normal business hours on Thursday morning. The big retail chains declined to discuss sales figures, but a disappointing turnout at a handful of stores in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area suggested that the Win95 launch may not be an unqualified success.
Maria Rubio, manager of the Software Etc. store in the Century City Shopping Center, opened two hours early and nearly doubled her staff to accommodate the heavy influx of customers she was expecting. Although the first Windows 95 sale was made by 8:15 a.m., buyers only trickled in throughout the morning.
“I was surprised that we weren’t as busy as we might have been,” Rubio said. Even the mob she expected at lunch hour failed to materialize.
The Computer City store in Los Angeles opened its doors at 8 a.m. but failed to draw large crowds during the morning.
“I thought it would be jam-packed and that I would be waiting in line,” said Brian Shuster, a 37-year-old film executive from Beverly Hills, as he breezed through the store with two packages of the operating system.
Marcos Genetiano, a clerk at CompUSA in San Bruno, said business had slowed drastically from the initial rush. “It’s not really that busy right now,” he said. “It was better today than usual, but not what we expected.”
Still, many retailers were delighted--and anticipating a big weekend. “Last night we did a normal day’s business in two hours,” said Bob Stone, manager of a Computer City store in Santa Ana. At midday Thursday, business was still 40% above normal for a weekday. But the real rush is expected Saturday and Sunday.
“We’ve actually hired about 20 more employees over the last couple of weeks to be staffed for this,” Stone said.
And at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., certainly, there was nary a negative word to be heard. The main athletic field on the lush, 250-acre campus had been converted into a carnival complete with tents and a Ferris wheel. By 9 a.m., buses began depositing visitors--media and computer industry types who would eventually number about 5,000.
Many arrived bleary-eyed, casualties of the festivities of the night before. At a reception hosted by Microsoft, guests who packed into a ballroom at Stouffer’s Hotel in downtown Seattle were greeted by a giant ice sculpture in the shape of the Windows logo. Later, Microsoft developers held their “Geekfest” in a spare auditorium on the edge of town, a hip gathering with funky ‘70s music and a pizza-eating contest, the sustenance of choice for computer programmers.
At 11 a.m., “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno took the stage in the main tent, but Microsoft CEO Bill Gates--introduced by Leno as “the man who’s so successful, he has Ross Perot as his chauffeur”--was the real star of the show.
Visitors spent the afternoon nibbling on “Compaq kebabs” and playing carnival games with computer gear as prizes.
“This is like the Cannes Film Festival,” said Mal Ransom, a top executive with PC maker Packard Bell. “This is the industry celebrating itself.”
Even Seattle’s notoriously fickle weather cooperated. The sky was an azure blue dotted by fluffy white clouds, just like Windows 95’s opening screen.
The only sour note of the day was a statement from U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno saying that the Justice Department’s antitrust investigation of Microsoft would continue, as expected. Her comments caused a flutter in Microsoft’s stock price, which dipped $1.75 to close Thursday at $96.125.
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This article was reported by Times staff writers Leslie Helm, Karen Kaplan, Greg Miller, Julie Pitta and Nicholas Riccardi.
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Microsoft sponsored the London Times’ entire press run. D5
* HO-HUM REACTION
Macintosh and OS/2 users wondered what the fuss was about. D5
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Hype or Help?
THE GOOD
* 32-bit architecture: Takes advantage of advanced microchips, potentially performing twice as fast as earlier Windows with 16-bit design.
* Start button: An icon in the lower left corner of the screen provides a common place to open a file, launch a program or get help.
* Task bar: A strip at the bottom of the screen shows what programs are running and allows the user to switch back and forth.
* Multitasking: Can run several programs at once.
* File names: Current Windows programs are limited to eight characters; new ones allow 255.
THE BAD
* Power demands: To run well, Windows 95 requires a PC with at least a 486 microprocessor, 16 megabytes of RAM and a 500-megabyte hard-disk drive, about twice the power of most PCs. That translates to $800 to $1,200 in hardware improvements for a user whose computer is more than a year old, according to Paul Gillen, editor of Computerworld.
* Multitasking: Doesn’t work well with older programs and can lock up the computer.
* Learning curve: Those who are already comfortable with Windows and DOS will have to relearn their computers.
* Mac envy: Still not as easy to use as a Macintosh.
THE UGLY
* Too much hype: A $1-billion sales pitch? Give us a break.
* Too much Gates: Is Microsoft selling a man or a program?
Sources: Bloomberg Business News, Associated Press
